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by Charlie Wolcott

“Love never fails…” (1 Corinthians 13:8, NKJV)

The past two months has been an incredible revelation for me about what love is and what love does. I opened up with how Paul proclaims that having the greatest talents, the best exposition of Scripture, the ability to perform miracles, the greatest servant, but if there is no love, then it is all worthless. Then I took two descriptors or actions at a time to unpackage this such short description of love that Paul gives, and I have hardly scratched the surface of it. Today, I wrap up Paul’s description of love: love never fails.

A couple years ago, I wrote about “Amen Living,” namely distinguishing the difference between those who lived an “amen” life and those who lived a “fickle” life. Love is not fickle. Love does not waver between opinions and sides. Love does not quit when things get tough or when you no longer see the benefit for you in the effort. Love is amen. Love is faithful and true and loyal. Love does what it says it will do. Love keeps doing what it says it will do until the job is finished. Love does not back away from a commitment, even a bad one, dishonestly.

Love does not have to see the end results or even potential end results to keep on loving. It keeps on loving anyway. Jesus endured the cross in part because he saw the end results. He knew that mankind would be saved through his death. But he also went through that suffering knowing MANY would still die and go to hell in rejecting him. He still loved Judas despite knowing he would betray him.

Love is not dependent upon those who receive that love. It is “unconditional” love. God loved us even while we were still sinners, while we still lived in open, defiant, treacherous, rebellion against God. If it were based on any part from us, it would fail. We could never earn God’s love no matter how much we try. Every other religion puts the salvation of man upon man to earn and deserve, and not a single one is capable of earning it, even to the best of the best. This is part of why Christianity is unique. It is the only religion or faith where salvation is based purely on the love and grace of God regardless of what man does. All we have to do is respond with repentance and faith.

Love never fails. It doesn’t start and quit. That is why we can stand with confidence about our salvation. God doesn’t give us salvation, wait to see if we mess it up or not, and then take it away from us. We are responsible for working out our salvation in fear and trembling, however, if it were possible for us to throw out our salvation and lose it, we would and none of us will get in. God’s love is not that way. Paul told the Roman church that absolutely NOTHING can separate us from the love of God, yet so many think that we have greater power than distance, location, angels, demons, or weapons, or whatever can to separate the born again Christian from God. It makes no sense. That does not give anyone license to sin because Romans 6:1-2 answers that one.

Love never fails. Six thousand years ago, Adam and Eve lived in perfect harmony with God and with nature and then they chose to rebel against God and try to do things their own way. They deserved to die that day, and as a just, righteous, and holy God, sin had to be met with death. And yet Adam and Eve did not die that day. Did God lie? No. He showed his love and provided the first image of the Gospel. An animal died that day in their place giving us a picture of what Jesus would one day do. At the same time, God promised Eve that through her seed (not through Adam’s seed) the Savior would come.

Four thousand years later, that promise and that first image, among many others which would be offered in between, were fulfilled to exact precision. Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the very Creator and Upholder of the Universe himself, humbled himself and laid aside everything that made him God and became a human being. He left the sinless perfection of heaven and came to live in a world cursed by sin. The very air he breathed was a poisonous fume to the perfect Son of God. It would be well insufficient to take someone who only lived in royalty and wealth, pristine and proper, and suddenly place him in the slums of a garbage dump, where he lived among trash and waste with no hint of sanitation. That does not cut what Jesus did for us just to live as a man. Yet he did it completely of his own will in obedience to his Father. That is before facing the cross. (Thanks to John Hyde for that image.) What is love? THAT is love. And it is a love that was initially shown 6000 years ago and to this day has never let up nor slowed down.

As you celebrate the Christmas holiday this next week, it is not about the gifts. It is not about the parties. It is not even about family. It is about Christ. It is about one Person whose love for the lost souls of men never failed. We cannot love the way Christ loved us. If we truly learn to lay ourselves down and let him love in and through us, then we will see that love demonstrated in full action.

Jesus set aside everything to live as a man in a sin-cursed world out of his love for us. And in return, what are we offering back? Many churches see large chunks of their congregations who can’t even bother to show up to church on time. Many are fickle on their prayer time and Bible reading (still guilty myself). God loved us by setting aside everything and we struggle to give him five minutes of our time. We have so much to learn and so much of self that needs to die. Love never fails. Despite our shortcomings and despite our fickleness, God is not fickle. His love never fails. It will always be there when we call for it, and it will even be there when we don’t. Jesus gave us everything of himself. Can we not give him everything of us, as little as that is? It’s all he asks. Let us pursue him with all we have.

Next week I will wrap up this series and this year with how love is the greatest thing.

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